San Marcos City Council members Melissa Derrick and Joca Marquez were unanimously appointed to a budget policy committee regarding the city’s Animal Shelter Implementation Plan on June 4.

Last December, San Marcos City Council joined Hays County and the city of Wimberley in passing an ordinance in support of helping San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter reach a live-outcome rate of 90% or more, which is considered no-kill status; and Buda passed a similar measure Jan. 15. 

Since the adoption of the San Marcos ordinance, City Manager Bert Lumbreras has been working on the drafting of an implementation plan with community members, advocates and the shelter’s regional partners—Kyle, Buda and Hays County—to present to the San Marcos City Council in June.

The aim of the plan is to help the shelter reach no-kill status within five years, although Assistant City Manager Steve Parker has said he does not believe it will take the full five years to achieve the goal.

Lumbreras said at the June 4 meeting that the council members’ charge on the committee will be to work with the city’s regional partners to convey the importance of participation.

The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter is the sole public shelter serving all of Hays County with an intake area of nearly 700 square miles. As the county continues to grow, shelter workers and volunteers say SMRAS has become increasingly strapped for resources—which makes the annual contributions from the shelter’s regional partners even more essential than they have been in the past.

“So part of that is trying to form this group to help us ... to be able to convey the message to them around why we’re going to be pursuing certain funding sources,” he said. “If you recall, part of that… [is] how are we going to fund the various years of the implementation plan and then get buy-in and participation and so on and so forth. Because, just like we have to put funding in the budget, they have to deal with their own governing bodies and so forth.”

Derrick, who has been a no-kill advocate for years, was nominated for her appointment by Council Member Lisa Prewitt. Marquez, too, was an expected appointment to the committee as helping the shelter achieve a 90% live outcome was an integral part of her campaign for City Council last November.